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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Online Counseling with Humans

“With online counseling, your clients do not have the
ability to learn about you from the frames on your walls, your office décor,
your car in the parking lot, the pictures of your family on your desk, etc.
Therefore, it is all the more important to humanize yourself by telling the
client some information about who you are and what you are about.”

This is from an article
from Thriveworks on building rapport (connection with a client) in
online counseling venues.On the whole I
thought the article was so-so, but it did have some points like the
above that made me think.This goes back
to a
post I wrote a while ago about using the phone vs. Skype, and how there are
innumerable nonverbal messages that a client communicates that the therapist
cannot afford to miss.I guess that’s
true the other way around as well, as pointed out in this quote – in person,
you would learn a lot more about me than you can via Skype (such as, for
example, what shoes I’m wearing, or whether I’m even wearing shoes!).

To this end, I encourage you to read what I wrote in the About Me section, and
feel free to ask if you have any further questions about who I am or what I
do.That's not to say that I will
start telling you the story of my life, but if you have a question, don’t
hesitate to ask!